Sunday, February 26, 2017

"I feel COLD." Jordan had another baptism this week. YAY!!

Another great week for Sister Jordan Wunderli.  She just got to experience her 2nd baptism.  I love that she is having such awesome / miraculous experiences.  I feel like I know the people who got baptized and I look forward to meeting them when we visit Japan.  I love the things she does to try to meet more people and serve them at the same time.  Enjoy her email.

こんにちは,
Transfer calls were today and Gorner Shimai and I are staying in Kumagaya woohoo!! Partyyyy. I'm now a transfer 5 missionary which is so sad. I'm middle aged now (we only have 12 transfers)!! Time is flying by. On another note, big birthday shout out to my brother!! Happy birthday bud, have fun dating all those girls! 

Free English challenge: 
This week we did the free english challenge for the first time and it was so much fun!! The free English challenge is something we do to get more people at mission school. Mission school is just the general name for all of the free English courses that we offer (Eiken, Toeic, Eikaiwa - Toeic: a prep course for an English exam you take that looks really good on business resumes; Eiken: a prep course for a English exam for high school students; 
Eikaiwa: English conversation class for everyone . For the free English challenge, we brought signs, chocolate (I mean who wouldn't want to do it if there's chocolate involved), the Eiken level test, and fliers. We stood right outside the eki (train station) and we would just make fools out of ourselves and yell, "FREE ENGLISH AND CHOCOLATE!!" So only the people who were interested in English would come out which was the way cool effective part of it. They would come up and first take the 10 question eiken level test which tells them how good they are at English basically and then they would get chocolate, a flier, take a picture, and that's about it!! 

The miracle of Engrid:
Engrid is a busy lady; she works all the time and when she doesn't work, she is doing stuff with/for her daughter. Yet she always makes time to meet with us!! We had no clue what to do about her baptismal interview this week because she was so busy, BUT she told us she would ask her boss if she could have work off on Wednesday evening for the interview. SHE GOT WORK OFF FOR A 20 MINUTE BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW. THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE!! She got interviewed on Wednesday night and "passed with flying colors," according to President Nagano. 

Engrid's baptism was on Sunday the 26th, and it was amazing. She was smiling the entire day which just made me smile. The kumagaya church has a baptismal font so that was nice. After she came out of the water and into the bathroom, I asked her how she felt and she said, "Cold!!!" Apparently the water wasn't as warm as we thought it was... Hahaha she also said she felt clean and then she asked, "When do I get the Holy Ghost?!" She's so cute. She received the Holy Ghost that day in sacrament meeting. She was just so happy!! I know she's going to be a strong member in the church and good influence on her daughter! 

Mission school:
We're really focusing on building mission school because service is the way to people's hearts! We went to two colleges this week to see if we can get in with an English club and it just so happened we went when they're on break! Bummer! But one of the colleges said that we can come back in April and start teaching English every Friday morning. Woohoo miracle!! 

Word of the week: 
Word: eigo 
Pronunciation: ay-go
Meaning: English 

I'm so happy to be able to stay in Kumagaya for another transfer with Gorner Shimai. I can't wait to see Kumagaya grow more and more!! I love Kumagaya and I love Japan! Hope you all have a swell week, don't forget to read your scriptures.
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics: 
1 and 2. Engrid's baptism!! 
3. movie and popcorn
4, 5, 6. Free english challenge
7. Yuna (she has so much energy, it's crazy)
8. What you do when you have to wait for the next train to come an hour later...get snacks!
9. Obaachan!! She gives the best hugs 
10. Obaachan making gyoza
11. FHE with the Takahashi family












All of these pictures put a big smile on my face.  I was also very happy that she gets to stay for another transfer with Gomer Shimai in Kumagaya.  I want to continue to express my gratitude for your support of Jordan.  She really appreciates all of the letters, emails, thoughts and prayers that you send.  Of course, it means the world to us (her mom and dad) as well.  As always, if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.  Thanks for sharing this experience with us.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Missing White Bike Helmet and a Baptism Next Sunday

It's that time of week again.  Jordan said their week was kind of slow but she thinks / hopes this week will be (much) better.  They did lose a day because of zone conference.  I want to share a few things regarding two things mentioned in her email so that those of you reading this who aren't LDS / Mormon will have some proper perspective.  First of all, she talks about a commandment not to drink coffee or alcohol, or smoke / use tobacco, etc.  We believe that soon after the church was restored, Heavenly Father revealed the Word of Wisdom (this can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants) which tells us that we shouldn't drink hot drinks (which is interpreted to mean tea and coffee) or to use tobacco or other addictive substances.  We are supposed to eat healthy and the WOW says we should eat meet sparingly (we all have our own definition of "sparingly."  I'm a meet-eater so...

The other thing to understand is that one of the central things we teach and believe in our church is the Plan of Salvation.  This has many names including the Plan of Happiness.  It is the theme of our Sunday school lessons this month and it's Jordan's word of the week.  The link is to a video that explains the plan - it's a beautiful plan with an amazing message.  If you want to know what it is, the video is only 10 minutes long.  Here's her email.

こんにちは,
Another great week in the land of the rising sun. We didn't teach a whole lot of people, but we taught a whole lot to Engrid (I realized I've been spelling her name wrong this entire time, awkward).

Zone Conference:
We got to see President and Sister Nagano this week!! That automatically made the week great. We had zone conference on Tuesday and that was basically our whole day because it was from 9:00am-4pm and a 2 hour train ride both ways. In zone conference we talked about the need for daily repentance and how we can help our investigators repent. They told us that everytime we give a commitment to them we are inviting them to repent (change), so we really need to focus on our commitments. Sister Nagano gave a training on how to get the ticks off our futons (beds). We have to use the futon dryer to first kill all of the ticks and then we have to put tights over a vacuum and vacuum the dead ticks up. She talked about it for a whole 20 mintues and really passionately. Haha I love her.

Engrid: 
We taught the Word of Wisdom to Engrid this week and she was a bit shocked to hear that we don't drink coffee or tea or alcohol. She drinks coffee everyday and wine often too, but right when we told her that it was a commandmemt from God, she said okay from now on I won't drink anymore coffee or alcohol. Wow. What great faith she has in our Heavenly Father and Savior to say that immediately. She is such an example to me. 

She called us Sunday morning and asked if she could drink hot chocolate. Yes, drink all of the hot choclate you want, just no coffee! Haha. She came to church and then after church we taught her more commandments (the law of tithing, law of chastity, keep the sabbath day holy, fasting). It was a lot to teach in one lesson, but with an investigator like her, it all worked out! After every commandment we taught her, we would ask her if she would keep it and she would say, "Yes of course, it's a commandment from God," in her cute Filipino accent. Her baptismal interview is on Wednesday this week and then her baptism is on Sunday right before church. I'm so excited for her!! 

Funny story:
Last p-day (monday) we were at this mall and when we came out, Gorner Shimai's bike helmet was missing! Someone stole her bike helmet!! I didn't think that happened in Japan. We're on the lookout for anyone with a white bike helmet. 

Word of the Week:
Plan of Salvation
Sukui no Keikaku
Skoowy-no-kay-kaw-koo

Just remember that I love you, but God loves you more!! 
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics:
1. Always representing! Go utes!!
2. Cool sun pic 
3. Our eikaiwa class! They're the best! 
4. Our kids Eikaiwa class
5. Had McDonald's for the first time in Japan this week 
6. Selfies with Keigo!! 
7. We made tacos woohoo 
8. Kiryu Zone 
9. Playing ping pong and teaching English










As always, thanks for your support via your emails, prayers, thoughts and snail mail.  She loves and appreciates them, as do we.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Straight up Doby

Sunday night used to mean the end of the weekend and thoughts of the work week would start to enter my mind as I would contemplate what I need to do.  Since Jordan has been in Japan, Sunday night has been and will be my favorite time of the week until she gets back.  I always love her emails and cherish the short time we have to communicate with each other and share our experiences from the previous week and encourage each other for the upcoming week.  Here is Jordan's experience in Kumagaya, Japan for the past week.

こんにちは,
Those who know me know I love Harry Potter and this week Gorner Shimai and I felt a lot like doby. This week I learned how to be super genki (happy/healthy) even when I was absolutely exhausted. And I learned that being happy and tired is way better than being grumpy and tired. 

Exchanges:
We woke up at 5:30am to catch the train to make it to Oyama for exchanges. We got there around 8am and used the directions the Oyama Sisters gave us to get to the church. We ended up getting so lost, so we called them and tried explaining where we were and they had no idea. Lots more confusion, walking, and time later we found out that we had gotten off at the wrong train station. Hahahaha oops. By the time we got to their apartment it was 11:30am. We were exhausted the whole exchange, but learned so much and they were still super fun. We then had to wake up at 6am the next morning to get home. Sister Gorner and I were absolutely exhausted but instead of complaining and being grumpy about everything, we decided to laugh at everything which made it way more fun.

Sweet little Ingrid:
I had to put the "sweet little" in there because she's just so cute. She heard we went to Tokyo this week and was worried one of us had transferred, and she always texts us goodnight and good morning. We had a lesson with her this week and basically just planned out with her these next two weeks of lessons with her. She is really worried about being ready for baptism by February 26th, so we sat down with her and taught her about the atonement and made it really specific to her, and showed her everything we need to teach her in the next two weeks. She seemed a lot calmer after that! 

We had another lesson with her on Sunday where we taught her the restoration and after we asked her if she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true and if Thomas S. Monson is the real prophet today and she said, "of course!" 

Joy:
We haven't been able to meet with Joy for a couple of weeks because her sons been sick and she's had to work a lot, but we were finally able to meet with her on Friday. I love Joy, but she's been having a really hard time with keeping commitments for the whole year that she's been an investigator so we basically sat down with her and asked her what big goal was. She wants her family to be together forever. We told her that was great and we made a plan for her to be able to accomplish that big goal. The first part of that plan is for her to stop smoking. She usually smokes a pack or more a day so we committed her to only smoke 10 cigarettes a day. We have called her ever night since then and she's been keeping her commitment! She also prayed about baptism and accepted our baptismal date for March 12th!! 

Everyday I'm a missionary is a happy day!! So grateful to be in Japan doing His work. 
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Word of the week 
Word: Obaachan
Pronunciation: o-baw-chawn
Meaning: grandma 

Pics:
1. Gorner Shimai and my favorite person ever!! Obaachan (grandma)
2. This peach water is straight up heaven 
3. Kumagaya 
4. Straight up Doby 
5. Kumagaya part 2
6. The light cut off part of my head but oh well


                   





As always, thank you so much for your support for Jordan via your thoughts, prayers, emails and snail mail.  For those who don't have it and would like it, her email address is jordan.wunderli@myldsmail.net.  If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to share them in the comments section.  Until next Sunday, make it a great week.



Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Tokyo Temple, Tokyo Tower

The post this week is later than normal because Jordan got a Temple p-day and since the temples are closed on Mondays, here p-day was switched to Tuesday.  Additionally, she didn't email until about 7:30 p.m. her time which means we started receiving emails at 3:30 a.m. our time so, needless to say, I didn't get to email back and forth with her.  I got some responses to emails I sent during the week and I got her weekly email which you will see in a minute has some EXCELLENT news.  Enjoy.

こんにちは, 
We had p-day on Tuesday instead of Monday this week because we got to go to the temple!! I hadn't had a temple Pday yet because I've been in the farthest zone in the mission. Well I just love the temple so much!! Don't ever take it for granted, especially if you have one close to you; it is a HUGE BLESSING. I'm so thankful for the temple and the beautiful spirit it has. 

Ingrid has a baptismal date!!
We went out to lunch with Ingrid again this week and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes, but she doesn't feel like she's good enough to get baptized so we really went over repentance and testified that we know that she can be ready for baptism. We asked her if she would prepare to get baptized on February 26 (just happens to be my brothers birthday too), and she said she thought it was quick but that she would really try and be ready by then. 

Kiyoko: 
It takes all of my brain power to teach Kiyoko. She is so hard to understand, so we have to spend 5 minutes looking up words she says. I feel so bad! But she's doing great and is progressing. We taught her the restoration and then told us that she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the real prophet today. We asked her if she wants to get baptized and she said yes, but she has to be coming to church and right now she works on only Saturdays and Sundays so we're going to have to talk with her about that.  

Keigo: 
Still trying to get his mom on board with his baptism... he prayed that she would let him get baptized! And he came to sacrament meeting this Sunday (usually he only comes to primary). Whenever he forgets to keep a commitment he was given, the first thing he does when he comes out of his house for the lesson is say, "oh no I forgot!!" He always follows up with himself, it's great! We had a lesson with him and his mom and talked to her about him getting baptized and she told us that when he's older then he can decide. Not the answer we were hoping for, but we just need to trust that everything is in the Lord's timing whether that means him getting baptized on his scheduled date or later.

I'm so blessed to be a missionary for the Lord in such an amazing country. I love Japan. I love these people. I love the heated toilet seats. I love the food. I love this gospel. I love this work. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

愛しています, 
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics: 
1,2,3,4,5: TOKYO TOWER WHATTTTT 
6: These random ladies stopped us and made us try on kimonos lol yoshi 
7. Indi curry 
8. Cool flowers 
9. The temple!! 
10. Look what we found in the vending machine outside of our apartment, it had been over 5 months!  











On a side note, I can't help but think how much the Tokyo Tower looks like the Eifel Tower.  As always, thanks for your support in the form of your thoughts, prayers, email and snail mail.  She appreciates it as do we.  More Pictures:

First 3 are the park across the temple
Temple
Fries with chocolate sauce 
Ingrid
Keigo and candy we taught him tithing 
We were in a 2 person elevator